West Yorkshire Police announces two senior appointments

Georgina Morris

West Yorkshire Police has announced the appointment of two new assistant chief constables to its Chief Officer Team.

Angela Williams, who is currently a Temporary ACC with the forces, has taken up post with immediate effect and Catherine Hankinson, currently Temporary ACC with Greater Manchester Police, is due to join West Yorkshire when a vacancy arises in May.

Ms Williams, who has 24 years’ service with West Yorkshire Police, started out in Leeds and Bradford before moving to the Professional Standards Department at HQ.

She has also served as Commander at Bradford, Airedale and Calderdale Districts.

After a short spell as Head of Protective Services Operations, she took up her current post which entails responsibility for district policing across the whole of West Yorkshire.

“I am delighted to be permanently appointed as an ACC with West Yorkshire and have loved every minute of the last two years, whilst I’ve been temporarily in post.

"I am really keen to continue to build upon a number of work streams that I have already started on and to play a leading role in policing the county where I began and have developed my policing career, particularly at a time when policing is going through such a significant period of change.”

Meanwhile, Ms Hankinson is currently Temporary Assistant Chief Constable with Greater Manchester Police with responsibility for Public Contact, Specialist Operations and Intelligence.

She has served with GMP for 21 years and, prior to taking up her current role, has worked in a variety of roles including Divisional Commander at Oldham and South Manchester.

Most recently she was the Strategic Partnership lead with Manchester City Council where she worked with partners to develop early help and intervention programmes as well as integrated neighbourhood working.

Ms Hankinson, who is a strategic firearms commander and Multi-Agency Gold Incident Commander, said: “I have really enjoyed my time in GMP and am looking forward to this exciting new challenge.

"As a large force, it faces many similar challenges to West Yorkshire and I believe the experience gained there is something I can draw on in policing our communities in West Yorkshire.”

West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Dee Collins said: “I am delighted to have Angela and Catherine on the Chief Officer Team, to support delivery of the Police and Crime Plan, which focuses on keeping our communities safer and feeling safer.”